The Yardstick By Which To Measure Presidents.

[Peach]

The ‘leave-it-alone liquidationists’ headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon…felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: ‘Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate’.…He held that even panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: ‘It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people’.

Telling.

We hear conservatives now making the same failed argument with regard to the December 2007 recession – note how conservatives today are just as callous as they were 82 years ago with regard to the suffering of the American people. Note also the typical conservative arrogance and elitism, they presume to ‘know what’s best’ for the people, including their ‘moral life’ and ‘values.’

The conservative failure to learn from history is as dangerous as the failed policies they advocate.

Harry agrees:

"Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home--but not for housing. They are strong for labor--but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage--the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all--but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They approve of social security benefits-so much so that they took them away from almost a million people. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine--for people who can afford them. They believe in international trade--so much so that they crippled our reciprocal trade program, and killed our International Wheat Agreement. They favor the admission of displaced persons--but only within shameful racial and religious limitations.They consider electrical power a great blessing--but only when the private power companies get their rake-off. They say TVA is wonderful--but we ought never to try it again. They condemn "cruelly high prices"--but fight to the death every effort to bring them down. They think American standard of living is a fine thing--so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire of Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it."
President Harry S. Truman

Truman remains head & shoulders above our current crop..............or perhaps we see it that way because we are looking at history? No one can judge the present while it happens.

 

[PoliticalChic]

I notice that you didn't list any errors in his precis......

It is an op-ed...

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Yes, Hayward writes opinion pieces, NOT history.

1. So....no errors in the OP?

2. Not all is from Hayward. I included the reference to Frazer's “The Golden Bough.”
Did you read it?
I used that because he explores the nature of the relationship of the tribal leader to the primitive folks, and that relationship exists for folks who need a 'daddy-President' to take care of them.
As in 'I won't have to put gas in my car,' or 'he'll give me free medical care.'

Very different from conservatives who value personal responsibility.


3 .Now, as for history...are you prepared to argue that Wilson and FDR didn't undermined and ignore the Constitution?

Or that that is not history?

 

[tinydancer]

AEI doesn't allow truth to be spoken. Ask David Frum who was fired for speaking the truth or the AEI 'scholars who were ordered not to speak to the media during the health care debate because they agreed with too much of what Obama was trying to do.

David Frum and the Closing of the Conservative Mind by Bruce Bartlett

I notice that you didn't list any errors in his precis......

It is an op-ed...

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan

I love that quote. Look Peach I think your posts are not only well thought out, but I also believe you attempt to leave partisanship out of it.

Some fun some time. I actually try to look for your posts because I believe you mean what you say, and you are not trying to inflame.

You would be to me a Democrat. An honorable opponent. My type of a Democrat. Not many left these days.There's one guy I love to death. Guy called Doug. Real dem. Real time.

Honest dude. I love talking with him.

 

[PoliticalChic]

The ‘leave-it-alone liquidationists’ headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon…felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: ‘Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate’.…He held that even panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: ‘It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people’.

Telling.

We hear conservatives now making the same failed argument with regard to the December 2007 recession – note how conservatives today are just as callous as they were 82 years ago with regard to the suffering of the American people. Note also the typical conservative arrogance and elitism, they presume to ‘know what’s best’ for the people, including their ‘moral life’ and ‘values.’

The conservative failure to learn from history is as dangerous as the failed policies they advocate.

Did you say you wanted to learn from history?

Coming right up!

"America's greatest depression fighter was Warren Gamaliel Harding. An Ohio senator when he was elected president in 1920, he followed the much praised Woodrow Wilson— who had brought America into World War I, built up huge federal bureaucracies, imprisoned dissenters, and incurred $25 billion of debt.

Harding inherited Wilson's mess— in particular, a post–World War I depression that was almost as severe, from peak to trough, as the Great Contraction from 1929 to 1933 that FDR would later inherit. The estimated gross national product plunged 24 percent from $91.5 billion in 1920 to $69.6 billion in 1921. The number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million to 4.9 million.

One of Harding's campaign slogans was "less government in business," and it served him well. Harding embraced the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and called for tax cuts in his first message to Congress on April 12, 1921. The highest taxes, on corporate revenues and "excess" profits, were to be cut. Personal income taxes were to be left as is, with a top rate of 8 percent of incomes above $4,000. Harding recognized the crucial importance of encouraging the investment that is essential for growth and jobs, something that FDR never did.

President-Elect Obama ought to consider the model of Warren G. Harding, whose policies raised Americans’ standard of living, and lifted the nation itself out of a depression…

In 1922, the House passed a veterans' bonus bill 333-70, without saying how the bonuses would be funded. The senate passed it 35-17. Despite intense lobbying from the American Legion, Harding vetoed the bill on September 19— just six weeks before congressional elections, when presidents generally throw goodies at voters. Harding said it was unfair to add to the burdens of 110 million taxpayers.

Harding's Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover wanted government intervention in the economy— which as president he was to pursue when he faced the Great Depression a decade later— but Harding would have none of it. He insisted that relief measures were a local responsibility."
Not-So-Great Depression - Jim Powell - National Review Online

 

[Peach]

It is an op-ed...

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Yes, Hayward writes opinion pieces, NOT history.

1. So....no errors in the OP?

2. Not all is from Hayward. I included the reference to Frazer's “The Golden Bough.”
Did you read it?
I used that because he explores the nature of the relationship of the tribal leader to the primitive folks, and that relationship exists for folks who need a 'daddy-President' to take care of them.
As in 'I won't have to put gas in my car,' or 'he'll give me free medical care.'

Very different from conservatives who value personal responsibility.


3 .Now, as for history...are you prepared to argue that Wilson and FDR undermined and ignore the Constitution?

Or that that is not history?

Neither "undermined" the Constitution, the Constitution is a LIVING document. One can disagree with how it is interpreted, but to say one human can change it is nonsense.

I do not see The Golden Bough as political either; a great work on faith as the motivation for belief, rather than tradition.

 

[Bfgrn]

The ‘leave-it-alone liquidationists’ headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon…felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: ‘Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate’.…He held that even panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: ‘It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people’.

Telling.

We hear conservatives now making the same failed argument with regard to the December 2007 recession – note how conservatives today are just as callous as they were 82 years ago with regard to the suffering of the American people. Note also the typical conservative arrogance and elitism, they presume to ‘know what’s best’ for the people, including their ‘moral life’ and ‘values.’

The conservative failure to learn from history is as dangerous as the failed policies they advocate.

Did you say you wanted to learn from history?

Coming right up!

"America's greatest depression fighter was Warren Gamaliel Harding. An Ohio senator when he was elected president in 1920, he followed the much praised Woodrow Wilson— who had brought America into World War I, built up huge federal bureaucracies, imprisoned dissenters, and incurred $25 billion of debt.

Harding inherited Wilson's mess— in particular, a post–World War I depression that was almost as severe, from peak to trough, as the Great Contraction from 1929 to 1933 that FDR would later inherit. The estimated gross national product plunged 24 percent from $91.5 billion in 1920 to $69.6 billion in 1921. The number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million to 4.9 million.

One of Harding's campaign slogans was "less government in business," and it served him well. Harding embraced the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and called for tax cuts in his first message to Congress on April 12, 1921. The highest taxes, on corporate revenues and "excess" profits, were to be cut. Personal income taxes were to be left as is, with a top rate of 8 percent of incomes above $4,000. Harding recognized the crucial importance of encouraging the investment that is essential for growth and jobs, something that FDR never did.

President-Elect Obama ought to consider the model of Warren G. Harding, whose policies raised Americans’ standard of living, and lifted the nation itself out of a depression…

In 1922, the House passed a veterans' bonus bill 333-70, without saying how the bonuses would be funded. The senate passed it 35-17. Despite intense lobbying from the American Legion, Harding vetoed the bill on September 19— just six weeks before congressional elections, when presidents generally throw goodies at voters. Harding said it was unfair to add to the burdens of 110 million taxpayers.

Harding's Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover wanted government intervention in the economy— which as president he was to pursue when he faced the Great Depression a decade later— but Harding would have none of it. He insisted that relief measures were a local responsibility."
Not-So-Great Depression - Jim Powell - National Review Online

The cause of the 1920 recession was totally different than the 1929 crash. So intelligent people would be able to comprehend that they required different solutions.

The 1920 extremely sharp deflationary recession was caused by adjustments in shifting from a wartime to a peacetime economy.

 

[Bfgrn]

The ‘leave-it-alone liquidationists’ headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon…felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: ‘Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate’.…He held that even panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: ‘It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people’.

Telling.

We hear conservatives now making the same failed argument with regard to the December 2007 recession – note how conservatives today are just as callous as they were 82 years ago with regard to the suffering of the American people. Note also the typical conservative arrogance and elitism, they presume to ‘know what’s best’ for the people, including their ‘moral life’ and ‘values.’

The conservative failure to learn from history is as dangerous as the failed policies they advocate.

Hoover was NOT "callous"; Hoover did not see a Federal government solution to the Great Depression, and, in fact, it was the rise of the Third Reich that pulled the US fully out of the Depression. There was a slump in 1938 that could have led the US straight down again.

The Recession of 1937–1938 was a temporary reversal of the pre-war 1933 to 1941 economic recovery from the Great Depression in the United States. Economists disagree about the causes of this downturn, but agree that government austerity reversed the recovery.

 

[Peach]

The ‘leave-it-alone liquidationists’ headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon…felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: ‘Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate’.…He held that even panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: ‘It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people’.

Telling.

We hear conservatives now making the same failed argument with regard to the December 2007 recession – note how conservatives today are just as callous as they were 82 years ago with regard to the suffering of the American people. Note also the typical conservative arrogance and elitism, they presume to ‘know what’s best’ for the people, including their ‘moral life’ and ‘values.’

The conservative failure to learn from history is as dangerous as the failed policies they advocate.

Did you say you wanted to learn from history?

Coming right up!

"America's greatest depression fighter was Warren Gamaliel Harding. An Ohio senator when he was elected president in 1920, he followed the much praised Woodrow Wilson— who had brought America into World War I, built up huge federal bureaucracies, imprisoned dissenters, and incurred $25 billion of debt.

Harding inherited Wilson's mess— in particular, a post–World War I depression that was almost as severe, from peak to trough, as the Great Contraction from 1929 to 1933 that FDR would later inherit. The estimated gross national product plunged 24 percent from $91.5 billion in 1920 to $69.6 billion in 1921. The number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million to 4.9 million.

One of Harding's campaign slogans was "less government in business," and it served him well. Harding embraced the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and called for tax cuts in his first message to Congress on April 12, 1921. The highest taxes, on corporate revenues and "excess" profits, were to be cut. Personal income taxes were to be left as is, with a top rate of 8 percent of incomes above $4,000. Harding recognized the crucial importance of encouraging the investment that is essential for growth and jobs, something that FDR never did.

President-Elect Obama ought to consider the model of Warren G. Harding, whose policies raised Americans’ standard of living, and lifted the nation itself out of a depression…

In 1922, the House passed a veterans' bonus bill 333-70, without saying how the bonuses would be funded. The senate passed it 35-17. Despite intense lobbying from the American Legion, Harding vetoed the bill on September 19— just six weeks before congressional elections, when presidents generally throw goodies at voters. Harding said it was unfair to add to the burdens of 110 million taxpayers.

Harding's Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover wanted government intervention in the economy— which as president he was to pursue when he faced the Great Depression a decade later— but Harding would have none of it. He insisted that relief measures were a local responsibility."
Not-So-Great Depression - Jim Powell - National Review Online

Uh PC, you left out TEAPOT DOME, that consumed much of Harding's Presidency. And Wilson had led the country through WWI, something which took some energy...............a much greater man than either Harding, or Hoover.

History News Network

 

[Chris]

Since the New Deal, conservatives have been on the wrong side of every issue...Medicare, Social Security, equal rights, civil liberties, church state separation, consumer issues, public education, reproductive freedom, national health care, labor issues, gun policy, campaign finance reform, the environment, and tax fairness.

No political party could remain so consistently wrong by accident. The only rational conclusion is that, despite their cynical "family values" propaganda, the Republican Party is a criminal conspiracy to betray the interests of the American people in favor of plutocratic and corporate interests, and extremist religious groups.

 

[Peach]

The ‘leave-it-alone liquidationists’ headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon…felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: ‘Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate’.…He held that even panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: ‘It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people’.

Telling.

We hear conservatives now making the same failed argument with regard to the December 2007 recession – note how conservatives today are just as callous as they were 82 years ago with regard to the suffering of the American people. Note also the typical conservative arrogance and elitism, they presume to ‘know what’s best’ for the people, including their ‘moral life’ and ‘values.’

The conservative failure to learn from history is as dangerous as the failed policies they advocate.

Hoover was NOT "callous"; Hoover did not see a Federal government solution to the Great Depression, and, in fact, it was the rise of the Third Reich that pulled the US fully out of the Depression. There was a slump in 1938 that could have led the US straight down again.

The Recession of 1937–1938 was a temporary reversal of the pre-war 1933 to 1941 economic recovery from the Great Depression in the United States. Economists disagree about the causes of this downturn, but agree that government austerity reversed the recovery.

One can argue only WWII got the US fully out of the Great Depression. After Pearl Harbor, even the extreme right wing supported war against fascism, not so before Pearl Harbor.

 

[Bfgrn]

The ‘leave-it-alone liquidationists’ headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon…felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: ‘Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate’.…He held that even panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: ‘It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people’.

Telling.

We hear conservatives now making the same failed argument with regard to the December 2007 recession – note how conservatives today are just as callous as they were 82 years ago with regard to the suffering of the American people. Note also the typical conservative arrogance and elitism, they presume to ‘know what’s best’ for the people, including their ‘moral life’ and ‘values.’

The conservative failure to learn from history is as dangerous as the failed policies they advocate.

Did you say you wanted to learn from history?

Coming right up!

"America's greatest depression fighter was Warren Gamaliel Harding. An Ohio senator when he was elected president in 1920, he followed the much praised Woodrow Wilson— who had brought America into World War I, built up huge federal bureaucracies, imprisoned dissenters, and incurred $25 billion of debt.

Harding inherited Wilson's mess— in particular, a post–World War I depression that was almost as severe, from peak to trough, as the Great Contraction from 1929 to 1933 that FDR would later inherit. The estimated gross national product plunged 24 percent from $91.5 billion in 1920 to $69.6 billion in 1921. The number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million to 4.9 million.

One of Harding's campaign slogans was "less government in business," and it served him well. Harding embraced the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and called for tax cuts in his first message to Congress on April 12, 1921. The highest taxes, on corporate revenues and "excess" profits, were to be cut. Personal income taxes were to be left as is, with a top rate of 8 percent of incomes above $4,000. Harding recognized the crucial importance of encouraging the investment that is essential for growth and jobs, something that FDR never did.

President-Elect Obama ought to consider the model of Warren G. Harding, whose policies raised Americans’ standard of living, and lifted the nation itself out of a depression…

In 1922, the House passed a veterans' bonus bill 333-70, without saying how the bonuses would be funded. The senate passed it 35-17. Despite intense lobbying from the American Legion, Harding vetoed the bill on September 19— just six weeks before congressional elections, when presidents generally throw goodies at voters. Harding said it was unfair to add to the burdens of 110 million taxpayers.

Harding's Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover wanted government intervention in the economy— which as president he was to pursue when he faced the Great Depression a decade later— but Harding would have none of it. He insisted that relief measures were a local responsibility."
Not-So-Great Depression - Jim Powell - National Review Online

Uh PC, you left out TEAPOT DOME, that consumed much of Harding's Presidency. And Wilson had led the country through WWI, something which took some energy...............a much greater man than either Harding, or Hoover.

History News Network

PC loves Woodrow Wilson...

Who was Edmund Burke?

The philosopher who is generally considered the father of modern conservatism.

"If I should claim any man as my master, that man would be Burke"
Woodrow Wilson

 

[Peach]

Did you say you wanted to learn from history?

Coming right up!

"America's greatest depression fighter was Warren Gamaliel Harding. An Ohio senator when he was elected president in 1920, he followed the much praised Woodrow Wilson— who had brought America into World War I, built up huge federal bureaucracies, imprisoned dissenters, and incurred $25 billion of debt.

Harding inherited Wilson's mess— in particular, a post–World War I depression that was almost as severe, from peak to trough, as the Great Contraction from 1929 to 1933 that FDR would later inherit. The estimated gross national product plunged 24 percent from $91.5 billion in 1920 to $69.6 billion in 1921. The number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million to 4.9 million.

One of Harding's campaign slogans was "less government in business," and it served him well. Harding embraced the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and called for tax cuts in his first message to Congress on April 12, 1921. The highest taxes, on corporate revenues and "excess" profits, were to be cut. Personal income taxes were to be left as is, with a top rate of 8 percent of incomes above $4,000. Harding recognized the crucial importance of encouraging the investment that is essential for growth and jobs, something that FDR never did.

President-Elect Obama ought to consider the model of Warren G. Harding, whose policies raised Americans’ standard of living, and lifted the nation itself out of a depression…

In 1922, the House passed a veterans' bonus bill 333-70, without saying how the bonuses would be funded. The senate passed it 35-17. Despite intense lobbying from the American Legion, Harding vetoed the bill on September 19— just six weeks before congressional elections, when presidents generally throw goodies at voters. Harding said it was unfair to add to the burdens of 110 million taxpayers.

Harding's Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover wanted government intervention in the economy— which as president he was to pursue when he faced the Great Depression a decade later— but Harding would have none of it. He insisted that relief measures were a local responsibility."
Not-So-Great Depression - Jim Powell - National Review Online

Uh PC, you left out TEAPOT DOME, that consumed much of Harding's Presidency. And Wilson had led the country through WWI, something which took some energy...............a much greater man than either Harding, or Hoover.

History News Network

PC loves Woodrow Wilson...

Who was Edmund Burke?

The philosopher who is generally considered the father of modern conservatism.

"If I should claim any man as my master, that man would be Burke"
Woodrow Wilson

Burke's "conservatiism" is of the European variety of course.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Yes, Hayward writes opinion pieces, NOT history.

1. So....no errors in the OP?

2. Not all is from Hayward. I included the reference to Frazer's “The Golden Bough.”
Did you read it?
I used that because he explores the nature of the relationship of the tribal leader to the primitive folks, and that relationship exists for folks who need a 'daddy-President' to take care of them.
As in 'I won't have to put gas in my car,' or 'he'll give me free medical care.'

Very different from conservatives who value personal responsibility.


3 .Now, as for history...are you prepared to argue that Wilson and FDR undermined and ignore the Constitution?

Or that that is not history?

Neither "undermined" the Constitution, the Constitution is a LIVING document. One can disagree with how it is interpreted, but to say one human can change it is nonsense.

I do not see The Golden Bough as political either; a great work on faith as the motivation for belief, rather than tradition.

1. "Neither "undermined" the Constitution, the Constitution is a LIVING document."
Only to those who which to destroy it.
It is a disservice to the nation to suggest that the Constitution is what the Supreme Court says it is. None of the three branches is above the Constitution. The idea of a “living Constitution” means, in practice, that the written Constitution is dead.


2. ""Neither "undermined" the Constitution,."
Time for some instruction:

a. Justly revered as our great Constitution is, it could be stripped off and thrown aside like a garment, and the nation would still stand forth in the living vestment of flesh and sinew, warm with the heart-blood of one people, ready to recreate constitutions and laws. … Woodrow Wilson [Woodrow Wilson
"The Modern Democratic State" (1885; first published in 1966)
The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Volume 5]

b. ‘Well known is TR's outburst, when told the Constitution did not permit the confiscation of private property: "To hell with the Constitution when the people want coal!" Less well known is that at one point TR summoned General John M. Schofield, instructing him: "I bid you pay no heed to any other authority, no heed to a writ from a judge, or anything else except my commands."’ 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask. By Thomas E. Woods, Jr. (p. 139) see The Mises Review: 33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.


3 ." The Golden Bough as political either; a great work on faith as the motivation for belief, ..."
Exactly.
Liberalism is a religion.

 

[PoliticalChic]

The ‘leave-it-alone liquidationists’ headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon…felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: ‘Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate’.…He held that even panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: ‘It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people’.

Telling.

We hear conservatives now making the same failed argument with regard to the December 2007 recession – note how conservatives today are just as callous as they were 82 years ago with regard to the suffering of the American people. Note also the typical conservative arrogance and elitism, they presume to ‘know what’s best’ for the people, including their ‘moral life’ and ‘values.’

The conservative failure to learn from history is as dangerous as the failed policies they advocate.

Did you say you wanted to learn from history?

Coming right up!

"America's greatest depression fighter was Warren Gamaliel Harding. An Ohio senator when he was elected president in 1920, he followed the much praised Woodrow Wilson— who had brought America into World War I, built up huge federal bureaucracies, imprisoned dissenters, and incurred $25 billion of debt.

Harding inherited Wilson's mess— in particular, a post–World War I depression that was almost as severe, from peak to trough, as the Great Contraction from 1929 to 1933 that FDR would later inherit. The estimated gross national product plunged 24 percent from $91.5 billion in 1920 to $69.6 billion in 1921. The number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million to 4.9 million.

One of Harding's campaign slogans was "less government in business," and it served him well. Harding embraced the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and called for tax cuts in his first message to Congress on April 12, 1921. The highest taxes, on corporate revenues and "excess" profits, were to be cut. Personal income taxes were to be left as is, with a top rate of 8 percent of incomes above $4,000. Harding recognized the crucial importance of encouraging the investment that is essential for growth and jobs, something that FDR never did.

President-Elect Obama ought to consider the model of Warren G. Harding, whose policies raised Americans’ standard of living, and lifted the nation itself out of a depression…

In 1922, the House passed a veterans' bonus bill 333-70, without saying how the bonuses would be funded. The senate passed it 35-17. Despite intense lobbying from the American Legion, Harding vetoed the bill on September 19— just six weeks before congressional elections, when presidents generally throw goodies at voters. Harding said it was unfair to add to the burdens of 110 million taxpayers.

Harding's Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover wanted government intervention in the economy— which as president he was to pursue when he faced the Great Depression a decade later— but Harding would have none of it. He insisted that relief measures were a local responsibility."
Not-So-Great Depression - Jim Powell - National Review Online

The cause of the 1920 recession was totally different than the 1929 crash. So intelligent people would be able to comprehend that they required different solutions.

The 1920 extremely sharp deflationary recession was caused by adjustments in shifting from a wartime to a peacetime economy.

I can see why you'd pretend we are speaking of the cause of the recesssion....

No, it is the solution that is in question...the so-called 'stimulus.'

Failed...but you're still beating that dead horse.


"Not facts, nor data, nor experience, nor rational debate will convince Liberals."

 

[PoliticalChic]

The ‘leave-it-alone liquidationists’ headed by Secretary of the Treasury Mellon…felt that government must keep its hands off and let the slump liquidate itself. Mr. Mellon had only one formula: ‘Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate’.…He held that even panic was not altogether a bad thing. He said: ‘It will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people’.

Telling.

We hear conservatives now making the same failed argument with regard to the December 2007 recession – note how conservatives today are just as callous as they were 82 years ago with regard to the suffering of the American people. Note also the typical conservative arrogance and elitism, they presume to ‘know what’s best’ for the people, including their ‘moral life’ and ‘values.’

The conservative failure to learn from history is as dangerous as the failed policies they advocate.

Did you say you wanted to learn from history?

Coming right up!

"America's greatest depression fighter was Warren Gamaliel Harding. An Ohio senator when he was elected president in 1920, he followed the much praised Woodrow Wilson— who had brought America into World War I, built up huge federal bureaucracies, imprisoned dissenters, and incurred $25 billion of debt.

Harding inherited Wilson's mess— in particular, a post–World War I depression that was almost as severe, from peak to trough, as the Great Contraction from 1929 to 1933 that FDR would later inherit. The estimated gross national product plunged 24 percent from $91.5 billion in 1920 to $69.6 billion in 1921. The number of unemployed people jumped from 2.1 million to 4.9 million.

One of Harding's campaign slogans was "less government in business," and it served him well. Harding embraced the advice of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and called for tax cuts in his first message to Congress on April 12, 1921. The highest taxes, on corporate revenues and "excess" profits, were to be cut. Personal income taxes were to be left as is, with a top rate of 8 percent of incomes above $4,000. Harding recognized the crucial importance of encouraging the investment that is essential for growth and jobs, something that FDR never did.

President-Elect Obama ought to consider the model of Warren G. Harding, whose policies raised Americans’ standard of living, and lifted the nation itself out of a depression…

In 1922, the House passed a veterans' bonus bill 333-70, without saying how the bonuses would be funded. The senate passed it 35-17. Despite intense lobbying from the American Legion, Harding vetoed the bill on September 19— just six weeks before congressional elections, when presidents generally throw goodies at voters. Harding said it was unfair to add to the burdens of 110 million taxpayers.

Harding's Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover wanted government intervention in the economy— which as president he was to pursue when he faced the Great Depression a decade later— but Harding would have none of it. He insisted that relief measures were a local responsibility."
Not-So-Great Depression - Jim Powell - National Review Online

Uh PC, you left out TEAPOT DOME, that consumed much of Harding's Presidency. And Wilson had led the country through WWI, something which took some energy...............a much greater man than either Harding, or Hoover.

History News Network

1. Really?

Did you want me to cover his wedding too?

This post was about dealing with recessions.

The first line should have given you a hint: "America's greatest depression fighter was Warren Gamaliel Harding...."


2. "....a much greater man than either Harding, or Hoover."
Under Wilson, the United States was the first fascist nation.

a. Had the world’s first modern propaganda ministry
b. Political prisoners by the thousands were harassed, beaten, spied upon and thrown in jail for simply expressing private opinions.
c. The national leader accused foreigners and immigrants of injecting treasonous ‘poison’ into the American bloodstream
d. Newspapers and magazines were closed for criticizing the government
e. Almost 100,000 government propaganda agents were sent out to whip up support for the regime and the war
f. College professors imposed loyalty oaths on their colleagues
g. Nearly a quarter million ‘goons’ were given legal authority to beat and intimidate ‘slackers’ and dissenters
h. Leading artists and writers dedicated their work to proselytizing for the government.
http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/Classical_Liberalism_vs_Modern_Liberal_Conservatism.pdf p. 9


Both Wilson and FDR were destroyers of the Constitution.
There is no 'living Constitution.'

 

[Peach]

warm with the heart-blood of one people, ready to recreate constitutions and laws. … Woodrow Wilson [Woodrow Wilson
"The Modern Democratic State" (1885; first published in 1966)

I read this as Wilson believing the nation would survive as it has been guided BY the Constitution since its adoption. And TEAPOT DOME was a huge scandal at the time, it showed Harding to be insulated from the wrong doing of his closest aides, and appointees.

 

[PoliticalChic]

warm with the heart-blood of one people, ready to recreate constitutions and laws. … Woodrow Wilson [Woodrow Wilson
"The Modern Democratic State" (1885; first published in 1966)

I read this as Wilson believing the nation would survive as it has been guided BY the Constitution since its adoption. And TEAPOT DOME was a huge scandal at the time, it showed Harding to be insulated from the wrong doing of his closest aides, and appointees.

1. The quote was intended to show that Progressive President Woodrow Wilson had neither respect for the Constitution, nor intended to enforce its precepts.


2. The first half..." the Constitution could be stripped off and thrown aside..."
I believe the meaning is self-evident: 'thrown aside' indicates the lack of respect it could be shown...

3. Now, a little more care with the in basic English:

Constitution:

Capitalize references to the U.S. Constitution, with or without the "U.S." Place "constitutional" in lowercase. Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, First Amendment, and other legislation and treaties are capitalized.
Writer's Web: Capitalization

4. ... on to the second clause in the quote: "...and the nation would still stand forth in the living vestment of flesh and sinew, warm with the heart-blood of one people, ready to recreate constitutions and laws."

Did you note that the second clause contains the word 'constitutions' both plural and with lower case 'c'?

It refers to the fact that he chooses to throw away THE Constitution....


The implication is that Wilson intended a very different proclamation, one which supports neither individual rights nor restrictions on the power of government. That has been shown in his writings and those of his contemporary progressives...

Get it?

5. Wilson: “ the Constitution could be stripped off and thrown aside…”( Project MUSE - Journal of Policy History - Woodrow Wilson and a World Governed by Evolving Law Project MUSE Journals Journal of Policy History Volume 20, Number 1, 2008 Project MUSE - Journal of Policy History - Woodrow Wilson and a World Governed by Evolving Law)

a. "Since the Constitution could not officially be "stripped off and thrown aside," Wilson endorsed the emerging, Darwinian-inspired theory of a "living Constitution." For Wilson, this did not mean creatively applying original principles to situations the Framers had not imagined: It meant negating those principles whenever they stood in the way of the march of History, as manifested in the latest promising idea."
From Hegel to Wilson to Breyer | The Weekly Standard


Both FDR and Woodrow Wilson had no respect for the Constitution, nor for the America of the Founders.

Nor do any who believe in a 'living Constitution.'

 

[PoliticalChic]

warm with the heart-blood of one people, ready to recreate constitutions and laws. … Woodrow Wilson [Woodrow Wilson
"The Modern Democratic State" (1885; first published in 1966)

I read this as Wilson believing the nation would survive as it has been guided BY the Constitution since its adoption. And TEAPOT DOME was a huge scandal at the time, it showed Harding to be insulated from the wrong doing of his closest aides, and appointees.

"And TEAPOT DOME ..."

I am certainly familiar with Teapot Dome....I've read the Laton McCartney book.
It has nothing to do with fighting the recession we were discussing.

 

[Inthemiddle]

Yeah, he's not a blatant propagandist for the all-powerful state like every other historian on the government payroll.

Like whom?

 

[Peach]

warm with the heart-blood of one people, ready to recreate constitutions and laws. … Woodrow Wilson [Woodrow Wilson
"The Modern Democratic State" (1885; first published in 1966)

I read this as Wilson believing the nation would survive as it has been guided BY the Constitution since its adoption. And TEAPOT DOME was a huge scandal at the time, it showed Harding to be insulated from the wrong doing of his closest aides, and appointees.

"And TEAPOT DOME ..."

I am certainly familiar with Teapot Dome....I've read the Laton McCartney book.
It has nothing to do with fighting the recession we were discussing.

You were attacking Wilson actually......................